On Sunday’s broadcast of CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said it was not appropriate for President Donald Trump to ask China to investigate 2020 presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden regarding his business ties.
Partial transcript as follows:
MARGARET BRENNAN: So China’s a- a surveillance state. Is it appropriate for President Trump to be saying–
CRUZ: Yeah.
BRENNAN: –China should look into the Biden family? Is that appropriate?
CRUZ: I- look, of course not. Elections in the U.S. should be decided by- by Americans and it’s not the business of- of foreign countries, any foreign countries, to be interfering in our elections.
BRENNAN: Even Ukraine? I mean when you’re talking about some of this, I mean do you think that- say the president’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who’s been talking about China, who’s been talking about Ukraine. Do you want to hear him testify about this sort of shadow foreign policy?
CRUZ: Listen, foreign countries should stay out of American elections. That’s true for Russia. That’s true for Ukraine. That’s true for China. That’s true for all of them. It should be the American people deciding elections. I- I don’t know what Rudy’s been saying. I- I do know though that we should decide our elections. It should be the American people making those decisions.
BRENNAN: And you do want him to testify before your committee?
CRUZ: I think it’d make a lot of sense for Rudy to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. That’s- that’s ultimately a question for the committee chairman, Lindsey Graham. But- but I’d like to see Rudy testify. Yes.
BRENNAN: So the president is often talking about the need to look in to Joe Biden. If he is so concerned, would it be in any way appropriate for him to bring it to his own Justice Department instead of talking about foreign countries looking into his political rival?
CRUZ: I have long advocated that the Justice Department should enforce the law, should investigate corruption, should investigate violations of law, regardless of party.
BRENNAN: But to be clear, you’re not calling for the Justice Department to investigate the Biden family?
CRUZ: Look, I don’t- I- I believe the Justice Department should investigate violations of law. If there’s credible evidence of a violation of law, yes they should investigate and I’ll tell you what I have called for. I think President Trump wisely released the transcript of his conversation with the Ukrainian government. I think that was good because a lot of what the Democrats had been raising, alleging an illegal quid pro quo, was not in fact backed up by the transcript. But I think- I think actually the administration should do the exact same thing for Joe Biden. That it should release the transcripts of Joe Biden’s conversations with Ukraine. Use the same standard for President Trump and Joe Biden and let the American people read the transcripts and decide.
BRENNAN: Senator Cruz, we will leave it there. Thank you for joining us from Hong Kong. We’ll be back in a moment.
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